Browse Forums Increasing Home Value 1 Apr 17, 2010 9:16 pm Second question for the evening..... We have a house that is around 25yrs old and the second bathroom looks like it has not been updated since it was built (or quite some time ago, if at all). It is in fairly good condition - it has a few things that aren't perfect about it - like the vanity not going right up to the bath so a gap that looks a bit 'unfinished', and being so old the mirror is really low as it is under the window so an adult can't quite see themselves properly and has to bend down a bit, and a bit of a grouting issue (nothing major). But it's clean and tidy, it's not not dirty and scungy - but very outdated both in terms of style and fittings and colour scheme (non offensive but yukky terracotta coloured tiles and creamy everything else and brown plastic toilet). Would we be mad to consider updating it?? YOu could almost get away with just stripping it and replacing everything but not having to do any plumbing - and even attempting to DIY (yikes, maybe not). But it would mean we would have to leave the mirror low as we cannot alter that without altering the window. If we wanted to fix the mirror height, we would either have to brick in all or half of the window - or rearrange/redsign the entire bathroom. But mirror/window aside just for now, would we be mad to do a lowcost upgrade on the bathroom. Just some plain white floor/wall tiles, new white bath, new white toilet (new everything, but simple).??? This is the second bathroom and so we actually never use it. We use the ensuite and our little one still uses the laundry trough but a family with older kids or guests would use it. (and back to clarify, we have only been here a few months ourselves but are considering selling in next 12 months, maybe sooner). Ceebs Re: Updating Bathroom 2Apr 21, 2010 1:57 am I'd try to keep the renovation to a minimum. bathrooms can get expensive quite quickly. It's hard without seeing pics but if the bath and sink are white, I'd leave them and just replace the toilet. simple things like just changing the wall colour and taps can make a huge difference too to update the look, old style taps can really date a bathroom.. the terracotta tiles is hard to say, on the floor could be fine but if there is a lot of it on the walls as well and it's overpowering, you could just change the wall tiles to tone it down a bit. Instead of thinking of a gut and redo, I'd just try to remove some of the negatives, especially the more obvious ones like the toilet and dated taps. I'll just add too that I wouldnt do white floor tiles, some people (me included) hate them because they show every bit of dirt and white grout will get stained sooner or later and a lot of people will see the white tiles and see "lots of cleaning and high maintenance" Re: Updating Bathroom 3Apr 23, 2010 7:20 pm Thanks Piscean. No, there is no white in there at the moment - everything is cream - including the taps, basin, bath, shower base and screen frames, bench and wall tiles (wall tiles have a bit of brown trim). The floor tiles are terracotta, and the toilet is a lovely brown. There is a small under bench cupboard that is in a light timber laminate kind of finish, but it has not been fitted properly and so there is a gap between the bath and the cupboard of about 1" (I have a feeling previous renovators bought all their cupboards and doors etc second hand and just made do with what ever came close to fitting). IF I were to re-do, no, I wouldn't put in white floor tiles either - just everything else. We will probably leave it, I just wondered if there was a consensus out there that if we tried to do it all cheap - say budget $10k (is that cheap?), if it would at least add $10k to the house and hopefully sell it quicker. We will definitely update the toilet and might see if we can look at resurfacing the bath and basin and shower base and replace the taps. OH, but there you go, already touching everything so seems better to me to just rip it all out and start again?? Anyway, all just food for thought at this stage. Thanks again. Re: Updating Bathroom 4Apr 24, 2010 2:52 am The great thing about it is that you dont use it so you could take your time and DIY which will save you a lot of money, but resurfacing would definitely be an option for the bath and sink and shower base. Coloured fittings do really date so changing them over to white would help make it attractive to most people for resale and help with a quicker sale. There is a great little book that I'd recommend by Allan Staines called the Australian Renovators Manual, it's very nuts and bolts and has a lot of great instruction in it and it will also give you an idea of what you are in for in terms of doing this DIY. I think that would be a good starting point in helping you decide if you can tackle it and after having a read you might decide you can go ahead and replace everything yourself (well within that budget) and lots of people redo their own bathrooms it really just depends on how handy you are but you will save a lot DIY. Re: Updating Bathroom 5Apr 25, 2010 9:31 pm Thanks again Piscean. Will keep that book, and your other tips in mind. No, we don't use that bathroom (occasionally the loo) but our 'thing' is, that we are already thinking of selling within the next 6 months. But have a bub due in 3 months so it's either do it now (in preparation for sale), or leave it entirely. I keep telling myself that we could... for eg.... resurface the basin and bath, replace the toilet and update the taps and showerscreen - and perhaps paint the wall tiles and maybe replace the terracotta floor tiles. But that still leaves the crappy ill-fitting cupboard AND the low mirror so maybe not worth doing anything unless we are going to do the lot. Aaah, will keep stewing over it. I bet we will end up leaving it, but I'd love to do it - would give me heaps of satisfaction to re-do it all (on the cheap) but just not sure it would be worth it just for selling purposes only. Sorry, thinking out loud, but good to bounce things off someone too (if anyone is listening). Ceebs Re: Updating Bathroom 6Jun 01, 2010 4:37 pm Id be cautious about doing a very low budget upgrade. When we were hunting for a house to buy last year we were frequently frustrated by people who 'rennovated' their kitchens and bathrooms cheaply. Because - it looks cheap. We opted not to buy a lot of places because of these so called 'improvements', knowing that if we bought the place, we'd have to rip everything out and start again anyway - what a waste. Sounds like you guys have a lot on your plate anyway (with the baby on the way). If the bathroom is functional, id leave it as is, and let the people who end up buying the pace (if you do end up selling) have the fun of upgrading to their own style. Good luck! Re: Updating Bathroom 7Jun 04, 2010 4:34 pm Get a quote to see how much it would be to build in the window and move it (maybe make it a tall narrow translucent window over bath - hard to say without seeing pics of the bathroom). We did a reno of a bathroom recently. Everything stayed where it was, but we completely stripped outt t he 40 year old tiling, scratched bath tub, replaced all the fittings and tiled up to the ceiling. Cost us nearly $15K, including getting someone else to do it all for us (need professional to do waterproofing, we had to supply certificate tobody corp). We thought it was worth it given how long it would have taken to DIY. Re: Updating Bathroom 8Jun 04, 2010 6:59 pm Don't be afraid to do a 'budget' reno Ceebs... if you put the legwork in you can achieve a great result! Here's a bathroom renovation I did for under $4k - it was completed gutted, and re-done. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ P.s. sorry the photo's aren't great Re: Updating Bathroom 9Jun 07, 2010 4:45 am Replacing the toilet with a new watersaver one is a good start. Even if you dont do anything else. We bought a house that had been on the market for a while for a very fair price and one of the reasons that put people off was the truely grotty toilets. Ripped both out and put fresh white caroma ones in and just that made an amazing difference. Even if your bathroom is dated, when you go to sell it, just be sure it looks fresh, clean towels , new soap, no clutter of half used stuff everywhere. Save your money for your new house. Render your bathroom walls, two opinions versus the one, makes you wonder. 3 6046 Hi Geoff Install Puddle Flange prior to any screed. Puddle flange needs to be flush with the surface so you may need to grind away the surface to achieve this. Also as… 2 8337 Hello It is good to have a planned bathroom reno to suit your budget and design, living for 10 years I think you need a bathtub 4 10354 |